Page:The Fate of Fenella (1892).djvu/40

 CHAPTER III.

HOW IT STRIKES A CONTEMPORARY.

But this case is so plain &hellip; that nothing can obscure it, but to use too many words about it.—.

, doubtless, did not literally believe that he could tell his friend "all about" that woman. But he probably was possessed with the conviction that when he should have said what he had to say, there would remain little more worth telling. We smile with a kind of fatigued contempt at the venerable classical joke of the fool who, wishing to sell his house, carried about a brick from it as a specimen. We know better how to judge of houses. But we are willing—sometimes—to pick off a very small fragment of human life, and to exclaim knowingly, "Look here, I'll tell you what it is made of!"

Lord Castleton's well-meant offer was not received with gratitude.

"What woman?" growled Jacynth, taking one hand out of his pocket to tilt his hat a little more over his eyes. 25